Nicky gave a quick smile. ‘It’s just a real shame that he can’t come.’
Lilith looked at her. ‘Is there a problem?’ she asked quietly.
Nicky made a face. ‘No, but,’ she lowered her voice, ‘in my experience, if a parent doesn’t come – repeatedly – there is usually a reason . . . possibly a reason we might need to know about.’
Lilith gave her a forced smile. ‘I can assure you, the only thing going on is work. Mark’s just been made a partner at one of the biggest firms in the City. Earns a complete fortune, but in return he has to sell life and soul to the firm. Before Helen died – Oscar’s mum,’ she lowered her voice even more, ‘it was their one major bone of contention. That Mark loved his job more than his family. But he always said he was doing it for her and Oscar. So although it may not look like he cares, he does and he thinks he’s doing the right thing.’
Nicky nodded and was about to ask how Oscar had got on with his mum when Oscar’s mobile phone beeped. He jumped up, shouting, ‘Daddy! Daddy! He’s coming!’ and flicked open his phone. Then silence.
‘Here we go,’ whispered Lilith, so only Nicky heard it. She handed Oscar his hot chocolate and toast. ‘What is it, sweetheart?’
Oscar’s head stayed down as he read the text. ‘It’s an all-nighter,’ he read in a monotone. ‘Dad says can I stay at yours tonight.’
Nicky saw Daisy raise her eyes to heaven and shake her head, like a long-suffering wife.
‘Of course!’ exclaimed Lilith. ‘We can all sing along to Busted in the car on the way back!’
Oscar stared at his drink.
An hour later, Nicky slunk off to bed. When the doorbell went, she leapt out and ran to the top of the stairs. She could see the shadows of Ally and Pete’s feet outside her front door. She could see from there that they were a bit drunk and wouldn’t be able to find their key, let alone put it in the lock. She ran down the stairs and opened the door. Ally was wearing a wizard’s cloak and hat. Pete was in full goblin costume, big spiky ears, even bigger spiky hat, fake nose, red cheeks, green tunic and tights. It cheered Nicky up no end.
‘Amanda didn’t come as a witch!’ shouted Ally, taking off her hat.
‘SHUSH!’ yelled Pete. ‘PEOPLE LIVE HERE! NICKY LIVES HERE!’ He pointed at Nicky. ‘SEE?’
Nicky beckoned them both in.
‘She came as a witch’s cat,’ spat Ally in the hall.
They went up to the kitchen, where Nicky made a pot of coffee and Ally and Pete slumped against the counter. Pete’s hat boinged almost as well as Nicky’s morning hair.
‘She looked like a complete and utter slut,’ said Ally. ‘It was porno-bloody-graphic. Everyone was there, by the way. I think you were the only one who wasn’t.’
Pete sighed. ‘I’ll never look at a cat the same way again. It’s most concerning.’
Ally swiped his arm and he tried swiping her back, but missed and almost fell over, which caused silent hysterics in both of them. After a while they stopped.
‘She wore skin-tight black leather boots up to here,’ listed Ally, touching her mid thigh, ‘fishnet tights, a corset and not much else. But more than that . . .’
Pete and Ally exchanged excited looks.
‘Yeah?’ asked Nicky.
‘Something happened,’ declared Ally importantly.
Pete gave a sad little belch. They took their mugs of coffee into the lounge.
‘What do you mean “something happened”? Weren’t you there?’ asked Nicky.
‘We were in the garden most of the evening playing cricket –’
‘What?’ demanded Nicky. ‘It’s freezing out there!’
‘French cricket,’ explained Pete.
‘Oh, right,’ said Nicky.
‘But when we came in afterwards,’ continued Ally, ‘something had definitely happened.’ Ally seemed to have suddenly sobered up. She looked at Pete.
‘You’ll have to find out for me,’ she told him. ‘Interrogate Rob for us.’
‘Knob off,’ he said. ‘He’s my mate.’ He turned to Nicky. ‘You do it. He’ll squeal for you.’
‘Do you think he got off with Amanda?’ asked Nicky, her voice even.
Pete looked perplexed. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. Then he turned to Ally. ‘I thought he’d go for Martha.’
‘Martha!’ cried Ally. ‘Why?’
Pete shrugged. ‘Easy shag. Low maintenance. No commitment ’cos she doesn’t want to finish with her boyfriend.’
‘Ah, sweet,’ said Ally. ‘It’s enough to make you believe in fairy tales, isn’t it?’ She turned to Nicky. ‘Is the spare room made up?’ she asked.
‘Of course!’ said Nicky, thanking her lucky stars she hadn’t gone to the party. If only no one else had, it would have been better still. ‘No hanky-panky though. It’s not that kind of establishment.’
Pete turned to Ally. ‘Did you hear that, Alison? You keep your hands away from me, you randy bint.’
Ally sighed. ‘I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t promise anything. Goblins with fingers for legs really make me hot.’
Nicky went back to bed smiling, the sound of laughter coming from her spare room. She wondered idly as she fell asleep why she always held back from Rob’s Hallowe’en parties. Was it a subconscious ploy to play hard to get, to make her different from all the other girls? Or was it because she really didn’t want anything to happen between them and knew that, in that context, it would?
No, when it came down to it, she didn’t think it was anything as deep as that. Parties were overrated in her opinion. To be honest, she never really wanted to go to the obligatory work New Year’s Eve one either, but she somehow always ended up there. It was easier to ignore Hallowe’en. And anyway, if she had gone out tonight, she’d have missed Oscar. She thought of Oscar, opened her eyes and, stretching out her arm, turned on the radio quietly for company in the dark.
6
THE NEXT MORNING was Friday and Nicky walked into the staffroom with a determined step. She had left Ally and Pete still getting ready in her flat and had forgotten about them as soon as she entered her boudoir. Her first waking thought had been about Oscar and now that she was alone again, those thoughts returned. She decided to confront him about Parents’ Evening once and for all. And if he couldn’t give her a straight answer, she was going to try and contact his father.
But that was forgotten as soon as she walked into the staffroom. There was definitely something strange going on. She couldn’t put her finger on it but she felt a raw, almost fresh, atmosphere, as if the air had been spring-cleaned. Conversation was lucid and sharp; time seemed less relevant. It was almost heady. Had she stepped into Shangri-La? Then she remembered: Rob’s party. Amanda the witch’s cat.
Everyone was in the staffroom, except for Rob and Amanda. Her abdomen clenched. For a moment, she thought the two of them might come in together, but almost as soon as this thought flitted through her brain, Rob came in, and he was very much on his own. He walked in with a smiling, laid-back swagger.
‘Hi, all!’ he greeted the room and received the heartiest response Nicky had witnessed since her time there. Instead of heading for the kettle and making coffee for himself and Nicky – a routine he had followed religiously for years – he headed straight for his locker. Two children were in the staffroom this morning talking to teachers, so she waited until they’d gone before she approached him, grinning. ‘So?’ she began quietly. ‘Was last night a success?’
‘I don’t know,’ he replied to the room in general. ‘You’ll have to ask the others.’
They all responded immediately with a selection of enthusiastic, positive noises. It reminded Nicky of when Miss Fotheringham had announced her retirement. Gossip – real, relevant, live gossip – made everyone feel young again. Something had actually happened last night. She was going to need to keep her wits about her to find out. She needed to be subtle. That’s what was needed. Rob would need sensitive handling. He was not one to give things away lightl
y.
She heard what sounded like a stampede of wild buffalo storming past on their way to assembly, recorders tooting in preparation for Year 4’s rendition of ‘Morning Has Broken’. She would need to go and oversee them with their form teacher in ten minutes.
‘OK,’ she said to Rob, ‘what happened?’ She had to concentrate to keep up the inane grin. ‘What did I miss?’
‘Nothing,’ said Gwen with forced nonchalance.
‘Nothing!’ laughed Roberta. She turned to Nicky. ‘Only Gwen as a pumpkin doing “I Will Survive”. The others had hysterics. Nicky’s pupils expanded like ink in blotting paper. She turned to Gwen. ‘Were you drunk?’ she asked in disbelief.
‘No!’ retorted Gwen. ‘I was enjoying myself. You don’t have to get drunk to enjoy yourself.’
‘Plastered,’ said Roberta. There was more laughter.
Gwen threw a book across the staffroom that landed squarely on Roberta’s shoulder. A library book, no less. To Nicky’s astonishment, Gwen had hysterics. Jesus, she thought. It had clearly been a momentous party.
‘Did you all go?’ she asked. They nodded.
‘Fantastic excuse not to be at home for trick or treats,’ said Roberta with feeling. ‘Kids nowadays are a disgrace –’
She was about to continue when Amanda walked in.
There was an immediate and complete hush as if a sudden snowfall had descended. Amanda paused in the doorway and they all stared openly at her. She put her hand out to the doorframe and swallowed hard. Nicky was agog. For the first time in memory, Amanda did not look good. In fact, she looked distinctly rough. The long, slim legs seemed horribly frail and the all-over tan was unattractively sallow. Why did she never have a camera on her when she wanted one? wondered Nicky idly.
The others didn’t seem quite so surprised by Amanda’s appearance. Eventually, Ned took half a step forward, gave a small introductory cough, and said, too loudly, ‘Hello there!’
The others copied him and Ned started nodding and smiling like a dog in the car window, excited that his leadership qualities had shone through.
Amanda made a sort of grunting sound in response, and, head down, stalked to her locker, where, if Nicky wasn’t very much mistaken, she started to try and climb in.
‘Blinking Ay-eeda,’ breathed Roberta at Amanda’s hunched back. ‘You look like you’ve been coughed up by a footballer.’ There were a few guilty titters.
Amanda froze. She inhaled deeply, and slowly wheeled round from her locker. She swayed gently and put her hand out to steady herself.
‘I,’ she announced slowly, wincing, ‘have got a hangover. I don’t expect any of you to understand because your idea of a good time is coming second at Trivial Pursuit.’
A few gentle tuts were interrupted by Rob breaking into unconvincing laughter and leaping forward to take Amanda by the arm. He was all effusiveness. ‘You were fantastic last night! We’re only jealous!’ He turned to Gwen. ‘Gwen! A glass of water please.’
‘Of course!’ said Gwen and rushed to the tap.
Another cough from Ned. ‘How . . . er, how much do you remember?’ he asked Amanda.
Amanda’s mouth opened and shut a few times. Then Rob laughed and said, ‘What’s to remember? Girl gets drunk, girl says things she doesn’t mean, girl goes home with head in bag.’ He laughed again.
The staffroom was silent.
‘Did anyone make a video?’ asked Nicky quietly.
Rob had loud hysterics. ‘Funny!’ he said. ‘Ah dear, funny!’ He let the laughter ease off before concluding with, ‘Ah, well.’ He gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘I guess it’s back to boring old work for us all.’
As everyone took his cue and resumed their morning routines, Nicky tried to catch his eye, but he was having none of it. Even when Ally and Pete arrived, he kept his distance. She had no choice but to go and oversee assembly.
For the first time in living history, the foursome didn’t get together all day. Rob either wasn’t in the staffroom at the right time or, when he was, there was work to be done.
During lunch he spent over half an hour discussing the benefits of tweed over wool with Ned. Until Nicky and Rob’s promotion, the foursome had always eaten together – either in the canteen or the staffroom. Today Pete and Ally were in the canteen, but Nicky had too much work to do. She ate her sandwich while working at her laptop. Rob also had work to do and was in the staffroom, but he was making conspicuous conversation with Ned who was throwing caution to the wind and was talking while eating.
Eventually Nicky fished out her mobile from her bag, turned it on (she usually turned it off as soon as she was at work), and texted Rob from where she sat.
I’ll find out what happened – on Bonfire Night – by hook or by crook.
She watched him break off from Ned’s opinions, extract his mobile from his jeans pocket and read her text. He glanced across the room at her and gave her a look that expressed something she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but made her feel both more distanced from him and closer to him at the same time. She comforted herself with the thought that this Saturday’s annual trip to the local firework display would probably be their most interesting to date.
This would be the gang’s fifth trip to the firework display together, an evening which involved joining thousands of people on the slopes of Alexandra Palace, watching fireworks and bitching about every single member of staff at school. One year, just to be sure they didn’t forget anyone, Ally had written a list. This, Nicky wouldn’t miss for anything. Usually there were a few days’ gap between the Hallowe’en party and the fireworks display, but Alexandra Palace had chosen the weekend before 5 November instead of the one afterwards, so there were only two days between the two. Nicky was glad of it. She wasn’t going to let Rob get away with secrets, especially since Pete had also gone silent over last night – his brotherly loyalty was proving stronger than his gang loyalty.
Before that, though, there was a whole afternoon to get through, and of course there was still no response from Oscar’s dad concerning Parents’ Evening.
‘Did you mention Parents’ Evening to your father last night?’ she asked Oscar first thing after lunch.
‘No.’
‘Why not?’ She tried to keep the impatience out of her voice. ‘Do you not want him to come?’
‘No!’ Oscar seemed annoyed. ‘I was at Daisy’s.’
She frowned. ‘Do you mean you haven’t actually spoken to your father since that text?’
Oscar shrugged defensively. ‘I often don’t speak to him.’
Nicky stared at him for a while.
‘He leaves me a chocolate on my pillow,’ Oscar rushed. ‘To show he’s been there. He does that when he comes in after I’ve fallen asleep.’
She just kept on staring at him. ‘That must be a lot of chocolate,’ she murmured eventually.
‘Yeah.’ He nodded, smiling. ‘It’s great.’
At the end of the day, Nicky asked Ned and Gwen whether Oscar’s father had ever come to Parents’ Evening. She was staggered to discover that he had only been once and that was when Oscar was still in Reception. Helen, Oscar’s late mother, had come that time, too. Later that year she’d died in a horrific, tragic car accident that had been so epic it had made it into the national news. After that, all contact with Oscar’s father had been made via the written word or over the phone. Nicky was stunned. She wanted to hug Oscar to her chest and never let go.
But, she thought, as she drove home, this was the boy’s last year in junior school – it was his Year 6, for goodness’ sake. Surely his father would want to come? Should she phone him? She’d ask the gang at the fireworks display. After she’d found out what happened last night. She chewed her lip all the way home. A tiny lump was forming on the inside of her lower lip that was beginning to feel quite satisfying to chew. Salty.
Early Saturday evening, Nicky began her preparations for the gang’s sixth fireworks display outing by running herself a big, hot bath. She was going
to make a special effort tonight. She’d realised that Ally genuinely didn’t know what had happened at the party and was beginning to tire of Nicky’s desire to know. In fact, she’d even gone so far as to say that Rob wasn’t worth so much mental energy. Pete was either similarly disinterested or had been sworn to secrecy. So Nicky had tried to work it out for herself. She scrutinised Rob and Amanda all day Friday for signs of intimacy, but all she could detect was an added consciousness of each other which she found a bit alarming. Not so much because she believed there was something going on between them, but just because up until now she’d thought of herself as occupying pole position in the race for Women In Rob Pattison’s Life. Now she wasn’t so sure. She was going to have to interrogate Rob. But she was also going to have to keep her pride. And where men were concerned there was really only one way to do that.
After her bath she poured herself into her tightest jeans, which she knew did good things for her thighs and the delicious little upside-down triangle of space above them, spectacular things for the soft arc of her hips and extraordinarily flattering things for her bottom. They were like a denim corset. She chose a skin-tight, black V-neck sweater, which gave her a lovely cleavage without being brazen, and her figure-hugging cream furry jacket which stopped just short of the exact spot where her back curved into her bottom. This she completed with her sexy, high-heeled black leather boots, brought in especially from the boudoir in her car boot for the occasion, which added an all-important three inches to her height and made her ankles and calves look like a slalom. She added her toffee-coloured woolly cap, which instantly warmed her dark eyes and hid the most unmanageable of her hair. Then she picked up her keys and looked at her reflection in the hall mirror, chewed her lip a bit and replaced her keys. She pulled her make-up bag out of her handbag (also brought in from the boudoir especially), applied another line of soft khaki kohl to her eyelids, which enhanced their almond shape, and, for a final touch of glamour, brushed her lips with a new deep, red lipstick. She may not be a natural like Amanda, but there was no denying she scrubbed up well. Mind you, she thought, eyeing her jeans, it was a shame she couldn’t breathe. She gave her reflection a slow, satisfied smile and when she heard Rob’s car horn from outside, did her best to run to the car.
The Learning Curve Page 10
